1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates generally to the area of clothes handling devices, and more particularly but not by way of limitation, to an improved display hanger cover for use in converting conventional clothes hangers to the utility of better garment storage and display.
2. Discussion.
Many prior art attempts have been made at improving the usefulness of basic clothes hangers which are usually made of stiff or semi-stiff wire. While such wire hangers do serve the useful function of supporting and storing garments, such as suit coats, in closets and the like, wire hangers do not provide much shoulder support for the garments, and the slumping appearance of a hanger held suit coat is soon telling as the garment ages. Further, because of the distortion which results in a sweater when supported by a wire hanger, it has become customary that sweaters be stored in a folded condition, either by the retail clothing merchant or in the home of the user.
Even when new, the appearance of garments is enhanced with the use of what is sometimes called as coat hangers, and also sometimes referred to as wishbone hangers. These hangers have curved upper shoulder supports to more nearly approximate actual shoulder support and thus present the hanging garment in closely simulated wearing mode.
Display hangers, which are generally similar to wishbone type hangers except for having much broader shoulder support arms, are especially useful as these hangers give much better support and fullness to a garment. Because of their expense, retail clothing merchants most frequently keep a minor inventory of such display hangers for displaying coats and like garments at display points, such as in windows. The higher cost of a display hanger cannot be justified for the storage and display of the total inventory, so most garments are retained by merchants on wishbone or wire hangers, or as with sweaters, stored for display in a folded condition.
It would be desirable to convert the wishbone and wire hangers to the utility of a display hanger while avoiding the higher cost of the latter type, and this has been achieved, at least for straight bodied clothes hangers, in the prior art use of hanger covers.
One prior art coat hanger cover is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,622,775, issued to Sasaki, wherein a coat hanger cover is disposable over a coat hanger. The stated object of this patent is to provide a cover adapted to be fitted over a coat hanger to provide widened portions for the support of the shoulder portions of the coat so that the coat will hang true and be adequately supported upon the hanger. Another teaching of similar import is the patent issued to Rice, U.S. Pat. No. 2,630,254, which provides a garment shield and support that fits over a conventional wire coat hanger. Similarly, the Felton patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,301,447, provides a garment hanger attachment molded from thermal plastic resin or light metal and which features the attachment disposable over a conventional hanger.
In like manner, similar slip over hanger attachments are found in the patents to Musante, U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,614; Florian, U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,314; Sutter, U.S. Pat. No. 2,649,229; French Pat. No. 1,537,858; United Kingdom Pat. No. 1,111,063; French Pat. No. 923,416; and French Pat. No. 1,121,265. Various other hanger attachments of interest are shown in the following patents: Samann, U.S. Pat. No. 2,420,101; Schmitt, U.S. Pat. No. 2,448,282; Wnek, U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,447; McFall, U.S. Pat. No. 2,353,839; Rader, U.S. Pat. No. 2,137,824; Fletcher et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,062,566; and Rice, U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,516.
While it would appear that the general concept of hanger covers or converters is well known in the prior art, there does not appear to be available in such prior art a display hanger cover usable with a variety of support hangers, such as with wishbone hangers and with wire hangers. It would be desirable to have an inexpensive, yet effective, display hanger cover which would provide support and fullness to a garment, such as a suit coat, and which could be used economically to display the major portion of a merchant's inventory at relatively low cost thereto. Further, if such low cost display hanger covers were available, many other garments, such as sweaters, wide shouldered dresses or dresses having weighted shoulder ornaments or supports could be more attractively displayed, both in the retail establishment and in a home wardrobe. The present invention provides such an improved display hanger cover.